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Les Gueltates d'Issakarassene

Les Gueltates d'Issakarassene

Country:

Algeria

Site number:

1058

Area:

35,100 ha

Designation date:

02-02-2001

Coordinates:

22°25'N 05°45'E

Materials presented on this website, particularly maps and territorial information, are as-is and as-available based on available data and do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Secretariat of the Ramsar Convention concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area, or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries.

Overview

Les Gueltates d'Issakarassene. 02/02/01; Tamanrasset; 35,100 ha; 22°25'N 005°45'E. Parc National de L'Ahaggar. A "guelta" is a wetland type specific to the mountains of Haggar and Tassili, a kind of rocky basin or "crater-hole" hollowed out of the riverbed. Either permanent or intermittent, gueltates are often found between 1,000 and 2,000 meters' altitude, and their depth may vary between 4 and 15 meters. Permanent gueltates play a very important role in the lives of Tuareg nomads of the region and their livestock, as well as serving as stopover for migratory birds crossing the Sahara. Issakarassene, in the Haggar mountains, is a permanent wetland of a type that does not yet figure in the Ramsar classification system, fed both by permanent underground sources and sometimes by torrential rainstorms. The site supports a concentration of the last remaining examples of formerly thriving flora and fauna, of which several wetland-dependent species have been able to develop various forms of adaptation that have permitted them thus far to survive the gradual process of aridification of the Sahara, including fish species endemic to the desert the cheetah Acinonyx jubatus and the gazelle Gazella dorcas are both classed as vulnerable by IUCN. The rocky, "lunar" landscape supports few human uses except as a source of water for nomads and their animals, and no significant threats are foreseen, except eventually a possible increase in tourism. Ramsar site no. 1058. Most recent RIS information: 2001.